Seiko 5 Speedtimer 6138-0010 'Yachtman' from 1970 - three of 'em!

Wow I can't believe it's been so many months since I last blogged!

I guess the harsh reality is that with alternative social media platforms readily available for one to share their thoughts and such to the wider world, blogging has become, sadly, passé!

No matter...better late than never right?

Anyways, let's not waste time cos I got a bunch of new watch acquisitions to plough though!!!

So although I love the historical achievement of the Seiko 6139 as possibly the first commercially available automatic chronograph, I intensely dislike the fact that I cannot wind the watch, and that I had to wear it on a daily basis to keep it wound.

I suppose it could have been Seiko's sly trick to 'force' the owners of these watches to constantly wear them, but hey, I'm a watch collector, damnit, and I've got more than one watch to wear!!!

So that got me looking at the Seiko 6138, a movement that came towards the end of 1969, a few months after the introduction of the 6139, but with one crucial feature (well, two, to be precise - it's also got 2 subdials instead of the solitary dial of the 6139) that sets it apart from the 6139 - the ability to wind the watch!

One of the earliest (and most popular) models of the vast 6138 lineup (See Jasui's awesome collection above) is the 'Yachtman', or 'UFO' as it is more widely known in the watch world.

These UFOs are not uncommon - a search on Ebay will reveal a million pieces - but most of these are for the international market - they're just simply labelled 'Seiko Automatic Chronograph'.

Since I like to keep things difficult for myself, and of course to keep within my collecting theme, I chose to hunt for the rarer JDM 'Seiko 5 Sports Speed-Timer', 'Proof' dial, 'Proof' caseback version.

When I was looking for 6139s, I used to come across these periodically, but had stupidly ignored them.

Then when I finally began hunting for them, they were nowhere to be found.

So this was the first one that showed up after some months - I hastily bought it despite the fact that it had the 'fatter' or 'blunt' arrow hands. Though correct, I preferred the variant with 'narrower' or 'pointy' arrow hands.

When it arrived, I had to replace the badly scratched crystal and the bracelet that was in terrible condition, but the rest of the watch was fine - the dial was in particularly good condition, and overall, this UFO from Oct 1970 was a wonderful watch - bright, colourful, and had great wrist presence!

So as with these things - the moment you give up and settle for a piece that is almost, but not quite perfect, a better piece will immediately show up.

Usually I wouldn't bite the bullet the second time, but I had to for this second one that came by, cos not only did it have the nicer and narrower arrow hands, but it also had the original Seiko 5 Speed-Timer bracelet, AND it was earlier - dating to March 1970 to be precise - and it had the necessary patina on the dial to proof it!

When it arrived, it had a unpolished case, which was a nice bonus, but internally it was a total train wreak - not only was it not functioning, it couldn't even be wound - the movement was all gummed up with gunk and other unmentionables!

But these 6138 movements did not earn a stellar reputation for being reliable work-horses for nothing - after a stint at my watchmaker, this little baby came back all cleaned up and ready to party with his younger twin and his 6139 cousins!!

And make no mistake - these are all JDM Proof Proof Seiko 5 Speed-Timers!

Addendum 8 July 2016:

So I unexpectedly came across another nice JDM Proof dial Proof back UFO recently, but what particularly piqued my interest is that it dated from Feb 1970 (one month earlier than my existing UFO), making it one of the earliest known Seiko 6138-0010s around! *** If anyone knows of any UFO/Yachtman dating to Jan 1970 or earlier, please contact me - I would be very interested to hear from you! ***

As an added bonus, it had a cleaner dial than mine, with the silver subdial free of the blemishes that mine had, plus it had been recently serviced and thus was good to go the moment it showed up - no visit to the watchmaker necessary....woohoo!!!!

In the flesh, these guys are dope with a capital D!!! Big, chunky, full of character and wrist presence. If you haven't tried one on your wrist, you owe it to yourself to do so!

Trust me, you will not regret it!